Hi,
I have a Punto Mark 1, Last february i had a new head gasket, thermostat, water pump, cam belt, rocker cover gasket put on it, then in december i noticed coolant leaking from the radiator so i had the cooling system drained and new coolant and radweld put in it, I had all the air drained out of the system but ever since then it has heated up over the half way mark which it never used to do, its rises to over 3 quarters of the way up on the gauge and only when it gets to 3 quarters of the way up will the fan cut in.
Does anybody have any ideas what this could be?
I need help fast before something goes wrong with it

PLEASE PEOPLE I NEED HELP ASAP!!!!
Thanks

Rules 101 of cooling systems never use radweld it blocks small areas e.t.c
But your problem: first thing I would try is re bleeding it

How do i go about re bleeding it?
What do i do exactly?
Thanks for your reply

2 ways
1 - run engine - open bleed valves and Watch air splurt out
2 - Open Bleed valve, Grab the Bottom Rad Pipe, and squeeze it, should either Hiss, OR shoot water out
if it hiss's squeeze pipe hard as you can, once you've squeezed hard, hold it while you shut the valve up Once valve is shut, Open valve again, and squeeze,
Keep repeating till water/AF starts leaking out

do the same for the 2nd Bleed Nipple

1 is on radiator, 1 is on the Heater Matrix's feed pipe at back of the engine

Once its all bled, check fluid level

If the Fluid Level is low before you bleed, - top it up to max first, then Bleed, Then refill to max, and see if it then overheats

Also Make sure the heater knob is on HOT/MAX hot, as this means the fluid can move around the heater matrix while you bleed, which is important as the air could be trapped in the heater matrix

Ziggy

Hi people
Thanks for the replies,
I took my car to the garage today and the mechanic could not find any faults with the water pump, thermostat, head gasket or air in the system, he said that the thermostat opens when it should, when the engine is revved the coolant sinks in the expansion tank which indicates the water pump is working, he said when it heats up to 3 quarters of the way on the gauge the fan cuts in but it cuts in for a few seconds then cuts out and does this constantly, he said he thinks the radiator is knackered could someone give me advice please??
I NEED THIS SORTING URGENTLY!!!
Thanks Guys

Hi there

I did encounter the exact same problem with my old Mk2 Elx punto, the main source of the problem believe it or not what the engine oil I was using. I used to service that car on a budget basis so I was using Halfords branded oil. The oil they sell caused me so many problems, I believe it was 10W40. The problem with it is that it is so cheap, thin and has a low concentration of additives that it burns very easily, within 3 months of a full oil top up I ended up with a dry oil sump

To add to this dilemma my radiator began to also leak and it is not surprising as the engine kept overheating with low oil levels.

Hope this helps in some way, what ever you do, DONT USE HALFORDS S***Y OIL, its bad stuff :yuck:

I've used Halfords Stuff, its okay, i think it does burn off a little quicker, but its okay, expensive when super-markets do Castrol 4l at about £17 when there there 5 litre is £22 ish

Mattpin2010 said:

Hi BallackCanavaro,
The oil in the engine is full and it wasnt cheap oil used to service it with,
Do you think when you look at my post that it could be the radiator?
It only started overheating after i put the radweld in!!
I checked my coolant today and it has gone completely, i only topped it up yesterday, There is no air in the system, and all cooling system parts have been checked and they work fine, the radiator gets really hot, but the engine stays quite cool....
What else could it be?
​

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Over-heating After Putting Rad Weld in
Kinda answers your problem doesn't it?

coolant Gone = BAD SIGN

Get the System Flushed, and Then Refilled and Rebled, and then see what happens
If the car is overheating, there has to be a reason WHY, the Radweld has probably Blocked up Pump/Thermo/Rad/tubes somewhere

And yes the radiator is meant to be hot, just make sure the Fan is also coming on, as when stationary, the fan keeps the engine within its Boundary's

Ziggy

Hi Ziggy
Yes the fan does cut in when the temperature gauge gets to about 3 quarters of the way up, but it doesnt seem to cool the system down much, the temperature just seems to keep going up as im driving along.
Do you think a system flush will solve this?
Im 90% sure the radweld is too blame and it has blocked something up, I was told the water pump appears to be working, the thermostat opens up when it should and everything gets hot like it should.
How would i go about flushing the system? Could you give me a step by step please? it would be very helpful
Thanks

Trouble is - i dont think you could get away with sticking a cleaner in, and running it
as you're getting way to hot
3/4's is too hot - if the fan is failing to sort it, then the problem is Big
If your not too careful, the HG has now already gone!

I think it'll be a case of Pulling bottom Rad Hose off, and Putting Hose into the Heater Matrix to clean that all out
Several Fills up and drops should help

Once you've done a Good Hose Pipe Clean out

Fill the System up with Water, and put a radiator Cleaner in there!
Bleed her up, and run the car as the bottle says
if the car starts to get too hot - STOP!!

let it cool down properly
make sure there isn't air trapped
And When cool - Continue the flush

But if the Water is Disappearing and the Engine just overheats, i'd be pretty sure it's too late, you've overheated for too long and too much, and Have warped the head

Ziggy

Thanks Ziggy but ive been told the Head Gaskets fine, theres no oil in the water and no water in the oil, Should i just try an engine flush and see what happens?

Mattpin2010 said:

Thanks Ziggy but ive been told the Head Gaskets fine, theres no oil in the water and no water in the oil, Should i just try an engine flush and see what happens?

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Why do people think there HG is fine when there is no Oil or water Mixing

A HG failure can do the following

1 - Blow Pressure into the Cooling system, Huge Air lock, soon overheats - sometimes develops into no4, water gets full of carbon from combustion
2 - Blow Pressure into the Oil Channels - however hard to tell as the Cam has a HUGE breather
3 - Suck Oil Into the combustion Chamber - hence Blue smoke i think it is
4 - Suck Water into the Combustion Chamber - Hence the white steam machine
5 - Water Mix's into the Oil - Oil Level Goes way out, Car seizes up due to lack of lube
6 -Oil enters the Water - Murky Water, car overheats due to Oily water, and lack of Oil

Only Possible way without Physically Looking at the HG, is todo a Compression Test / Sniffer test to see whats going on

Yes you are probably better off getting rid of Rad-weld, its nasty stuff, and only mask's problems never sorts them

Ziggy

Do you think flushing the system completely could solve the problem? Since it has been doing this ever since the Radweld went in?
Thanks

I find it difficult to believe that a car goes into a garage with the problems as described and the garage don't do a pressure test on the coolant or a compression test on the pots - the water has to be going somewhere - although it is possible that, just like a central heating system, the water is being evaporated by the overheating - but why didn't the garage look at this?

I don't suppose anybody's looked at the temp sender unit - they used to be in the bottom corner of the rad, but sometimes found near the thermostat housing. This sends temp info back to the computer which, in turn, sends info to the temp guage & a signal to the fan.
On older cars, the sender unit sometimes acted as a switch, earthing the supply & allowing the fans to run. Limescale building up round these often meant overheating problems.

sludgeguts said:

I find it difficult to believe that a car goes into a garage with the problems as described and the garage don't do a pressure test on the coolant or a compression test on the pots - the water has to be going somewhere - although it is possible that, just like a central heating system, the water is being evaporated by the overheating - but why didn't the garage look at this?

I don't suppose anybody's looked at the temp sender unit - they used to be in the bottom corner of the rad, but sometimes found near the thermostat housing. This sends temp info back to the computer which, in turn, sends info to the temp guage & a signal to the fan.
On older cars, the sender unit sometimes acted as a switch, earthing the supply & allowing the fans to run. Limescale building up round these often meant overheating problems.

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Sludgeguts thanks for your reply, i was told everything is working as it should and everything is getting hot like it should but then after a while it just starts to boil up and overheats, the fan cuts in but only for a few seconds and it does that constantly once it gets to a certain temperature
What does this mean?

Mattpin2010 said:

Sludgeguts thanks for your reply, i was told everything is working as it should and everything is getting hot like it should but then after a while it just starts to boil up and overheats, the fan cuts in but only for a few seconds and it does that constantly once it gets to a certain temperature
What does this mean?

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But whoever told you that is telling porkies as it is obviously getting TOO hot - therefore everything IS NOT WORKING as it should.

I sure can sympathise with coolant problems after the week I've had!!! Last Friday, the engine got to 100 deg and then blew all its coolant out through the heater hose. (I now know these are impossible to find, by the way...) Fan wasn't coming on either. Garage rigged up an 'equivalent' arrangement for the hose - now the fan's coming on at about 96 deg, so garage says. (Haven't heard it come on yet myself.) This leaves me wondering if the thingamee that activates the fan is at fault? What you poured in may well have a bearing on the problem - what happened to me last Friday was the culmination of problems that began some time after an AA patrol poured K-seal into my engine...

Trouble with pouring jollop into the system to repair leaks is that the jollop is designed to mooch around in corners & it will only move along if there is more jollop than the corner has room for.
The thermo switch is generally sat right in the bottom corner of the rad - and is probably covered in jollop that's not being moved around by the flow, so it's possibly not getting an accurate temp reading.

Must be the week for cooling problems, mines using about 1L a week and my garage can't fathom why, 1998 sporting, I think the fluctuations in temp when it gets low won't be doing my engine any good! Any ideas?

My coolant problem just gets weirder - sometimes (after even a short journey) the level drops. Not by much, but it drops. Other times, after the engine's cooled down, the level seems to rise above where I last filled it to. What the...? And just now I noticed a brown creamy deposit inside the oil filler cap. If this turns out to be head gasket, I'll be well p****d off - that was only done last year. £350 - ouch!!!